Best in Rescue!: How Voting Works & How to Win

What Best in Rescue! is and who runs it

Best in Rescue! is a photo contest fundraiser built around rescue dogs, run by Touch of Grey Rescue, an organization whose mailing address is PO Box 510311, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951. The ballot lives on the GoGo Photo Contest platform, whose pages carry a 2026 copyright line for GGPC, LLC. The full voting address is gogophotocontest.com/poocharella2026_bestinrescue, and the Poocharella name in that address points to the Melbourne event the contest feeds into.

The format is simple enough to describe in one breath: an owner submits one photo that best represents their rescue dog, attaches a rescue story of 500 words or less, and then rallies votes. Entries are restricted to rescue dogs only, which is what separates this ballot from a general pet photo contest. The vertical here is a community fundraiser rather than a business ranking, so the entries are individual dogs and their families, not local shops competing for a title.

Because the contest doubles as a fundraiser, the mechanics and the money are linked: votes and dollars move together, and the proceeds support the rescue's work. That framing matters for anyone deciding whether to enter, since the commitment is not just a photo but a push to gather support across a window that spans late January into early March.

The dated history of Best in Rescue!

Three editions of Best in Rescue! have run: 2024, 2025 and 2026. That makes it an annual fixture for Touch of Grey Rescue, not a one-time trial, and each edition has been anchored to the Poocharella event in Melbourne, Florida. The 2026 ballot carried the event year in its own web address, which is how the cycles stay distinguishable from one another.

The 2026 cycle is the edition with printed times: submissions and voting opened 1/25 at noon and ended 3/08 at noon, Eastern Time. The page also noted that the contest had ended, meaning the 2026 cycle closed with results posted rather than a live ballot. For the next cycle, the organizer has not yet printed opening or closing dates, so the timing of the 2027 edition is something to confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

The event side of the history is equally specific. Poocharella 2026 was set for Saturday, March 21st at Wickham Park in Melbourne, Florida, with goodies valued at 200 dollars offered at the event. The top five finalists were required to be willing to attend, which turns the online vote into a qualifier for an in-person gathering two weeks after the ballot closed.

One thing the ballot page does not break out is how the entries are grouped beyond the rescue-dog focus. Touch of Grey Rescue has published no category breakdown for this contest; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How a supporter votes in Best in Rescue!

Voting here is a straightforward public count with a fundraiser twist. The rules printed for the 2026 edition state that anyone can vote, and vote as many times as they want, with one dollar equaling one vote. There is no per-person daily limit in that printed text, so anyone backing a particular dog can return repeatedly across the window, and every additional vote is also a contribution to the rescue.

On the entry side, the submission steps are equally explicit. A participant submits one photo that best represents their rescue dog and includes the dog's rescue story in 500 words or less. The page urges entrants to get photo submissions in early to maximize votes, which reflects how a six-week window rewards entries that start gathering support from the first day rather than the last.

Everything runs on Eastern Time, which matters because the 2026 close fell at noon on 3/08. A supporter voting near the deadline is working against a midday cutoff, not an end-of-day one, and the ballot page displays the contest clock in Eastern Time throughout.

The finalist structure sits on top of this mechanic. The top ten entries are decided by popular vote online, meaning the raw count alone decides who advances, and the top five must then be willing to attend Poocharella in person. A dog whose family cannot attend the event cannot carry the title forward even with a winning count, so the attendance rule is worth reading before entering at all.

Where Best in Rescue! sits among Florida ballots

Florida runs many public-vote programs, and Best in Rescue! fills a niche the rest do not touch. The Best of Florida Awards and the Best of Miami Readers' Poll rank businesses and services across broad categories, while the Best of Orlando poll and Best of Tallahassee do the same for their metro readerships. The Best of the Bay program and Best in Destin cover their own Gulf-coast and panhandle markets in the same best-of shape.

Best in Rescue! is different in three ways. First, its organizer is a rescue organization, not a publisher or chamber, so the proceeds flow to animal welfare rather than to a media brand. Second, its entries are individual rescue dogs rather than businesses, which changes who campaigns: families and friends of a dog, not marketing budgets. Third, its vote rule is printed as unlimited participation with one dollar equaling one vote, a fundraiser design most reader polls do not use.

Geographically it anchors to the Melbourne and Melbourne Beach area on the Space Coast, a narrower footprint than the statewide or big-city ballots listed above. That narrowness is a feature for entrants, since a local supporter base concentrated around Wickham Park and the Poocharella event can move the count more than a scattered statewide one. Anyone comparing Florida ballots should match the program to the kind of entry they want to back before investing effort in either.

Strengthening support for a rescue-dog entry

Because this ballot counts unlimited votes from anyone, with each dollar equaling one vote, the practical play for an entrant is breadth and repetition: reach everyone who loves your dog's story, and make it easy for them to return. The rescue-story requirement of 500 words or less is your best asset, since a compelling story travels further in a share than a photo alone. The organizer's own advice, getting submissions in early to maximize votes, applies to promotion too, because a six-week window compounds early momentum.

Beyond its own vote rule, the rescue prints nothing about outside assistance, so entrants weighing purchased support should read the ballot's rules section directly and see how award-vote support works before deciding anything. What is certain is the ballot's own design: it invites repeated participation and ties votes to contributions, which is the fundraiser working as intended.